History of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy
Ancient Philosophy
The Ionian School and the Pre-Socratics
Philosophy emerged with the Ionians, who sought rational explanations for the world. Their approach emphasized reason and immanent explanations, viewing the universe as an ordered cosmos.
Key figures include the Pre-Socratics, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.
The Pre-Socratics explored the fundamental principle of reality (arkhe). They believed in a primary substance from which all things originate and return. Among them were:
- The Milesians (e.g., Anaximander, Anaximenes), who posited a single element as the basis of reality.
- The Pythagoreans, influenced by Orphism, believed numbers constituted the essence of the universe, expressing its structure through harmonious numerical relationships.
- Heraclitus of Ephesus, who emphasized constant change and a universal principle governing this flux.
- Parmenides, who championed being and stillness, distinguishing between doxa (knowledge of appearances) and episteme (true knowledge of reality).
- The Pluralists (e.g., Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Democritus), who proposed multiple principles as the arkhe.
Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle
Socrates
Socrates, through dialogues with his disciples, pursued true ideas aimed at just action. He emphasized recognizing one’s ignorance and engaging in a process of idea generation. He advocated moral intellectualism, the belief that wrongdoing stems from ignorance. Socrates sought to uncover innate ideas and encouraged independent thinking. He was ultimately sentenced to death for his beliefs.
Plato
Plato investigated the characteristics of a just city, proposing that philosopher-kings, possessing true understanding of ideas, should govern. Influenced by Parmenides, he distinguished between doxa (knowledge of the sensible world of appearances) and episteme (true knowledge of the intelligible world of ideas). He posited the supreme good as the highest idea and a demiurge (divine craftsman) who shaped the material world, reflecting a teleological view.
Aristotle
Aristotle rejected the separation between the sensible and intelligible worlds, arguing that ideas are inseparable from matter and define the essence of things. He believed knowledge begins with sensory experience and progresses to universal concepts. His ethical reflections emphasized that human nature contains inherent moral principles guiding us towards self-realization as rational beings.
Medieval Philosophy
Christianity is forced to assimilate philosophical assumptions to defend against attacks of the philosophical world and a better understanding of the faith. The currents that influence are Neoplatonism, Platonism, and, later, Aristotelian thought.
We found three periods: patristic, scholastic and the crisis of scholasticism.
Encompasses the patristic fathers of the Church, which represent the doctrine of the Church with fidelity to the teachings of its founder. The main theme is to harmonize faith and reason, and the largest representative is St. Augustine.
Augustine argues that reason and faith are two complementary paths that lead to true. Faith is a gift from God, and the reason is the image of God, which helps the man in his journey to faith. Influenced by Neoplatonism, says the man found inside ideas and universal truths from God by means of illumination. God illuminates the soul, and so intelligence can discern those ideas and find the truth. For him, history is the struggle in fighting between the city of God, who lives under the law of God and the earthly city, which goes against it. In the end, the city of God will overcome the earth. This teleological conception means that human events have meaning when addressing God.
Scholasticism is teleological and philosophical speculation that culture and development in schools in the Middle Ages. The dialectical argued that faith should be analyzed under the assumptions of the reason, and anti-dialecticians maintained the supremacy of faith over reason.
The most representative is Thomas Aquinas, who argued that faith and reason are two sources of knowledge, each with its own content. There are truths of faith are not met the right and vice versa, but there are truths that can be reached through faith and reason, as that God exists, creating the world and the immortality of the soul. It is necessary for God to reveal these truths, even if reason can find them. Thomas believes that reason can prove the existence of God. The truth is unique and there is no conflict between faith and reason, because they both help each other. As church-state relationship, thinks the state is not the result of original sin and of human selfishness, but is a perfect society, as it has all necessary means to achieve its goal: the common good. The Church is superior to the state, and this should be subject to it and prevent it from achieving its end.
Finally we find the CRISIS of scholasticism: The idea of building a new empire did not disappear after the fall of the ancient Roman empire, and he was emerging the Holy Roman Empire, but this ideal is never achieved. The crumbling of the idea of building an empire in the fourteenth century, overthrew the cultural system of Thomas Aquinas and other thinkers.
Stresses Ockham, who believes that faith and reason are two independent and different ways of knowing. God reveals what can not be known by reason, and what reason can know, God reveals. It also argues that the world is because God has willed, the man just left the empirical observation to know what the world is. If the existence of God is demonstrated by reason, must be accepted by faith. Ockham defends the separation of church and state. Necessarily deny the Pope’s intervention in the state, because the imperial power is derived from people’s power. On the other hand, advocates a Church poor and temporal power.
Faced with the problem of meaning of terms, Ockham thinks that God is free to create the world, and is not limited, so there are no common scents. God alone creates individuals, so that the universal term is a mere name.